The top 30 books over 5 years

As most of you who regularly read me know I’m not too interested in persuading people of things. Rather, I think that if the truth is what it is through a collaborative process of searching for it we’ll all eventually converge upon it, given enough time (which is a big condition!). Rather, the goal on this weblog is to create a set of like-minded readers and explorers. I know some of you think I’m smart and well read, but the point is that I don’t really care what you think of me. And similarly, I hope you don’t care what I think of you. The truth as we understand is its own reward. A sweetness of discovery and comprehension which most people don’t seek, nor desire. Rather, they’d prefer to run with their own horde of fellow-travelers.

With that out of the way, I was curious what books readers had purchased over the years. I’ve been an Amazon affiliate for over 15 years mostly because I do so much book-blogging. Amazon gives me records right now back to 2010. In that time over 5,000 books have been purchased through links on this website. So what are the top 30? (I picked that number because these are the number well above N = 10) It’s probably no surprise that The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization tops the list. I’ve read this book three times cover to cover since 2006. It’s really shaped my perception of how we can understand history in a positive, rather than just interpretative, sense. Second, I’m rather proud that I’ve somehow been involved in ~20 purchases of Principles of Population Genetics. These were people who didn’t purchase it for a class, but because they were interested in the topic. Finally, I have no idea why so many people bought Different Brains, Different Learners. I have never heard of this book before today. No surprise that no fiction is in the top 30.